Tuesday, September 23, 2014

I'm a Sesame Street fan and loves all their songs and this particular song Play with Me Sesame is favourite after I first heard it 6-7 years ago.

Little did I know I will be hearing these 3 words "Play with Me" constantly from DinoBoy for years to come. We know its easy to engage toddlers by playing with their toys but it gets a little bit challenging when they are older. Most of us; including the DinoFamily, chose the easy way out by letting the electronic devices babysit our kids. Luckily we managed to get out from that situation and have introduced many card & board games (you can easily get them from departmental stores or those party supplies stores) to DinoBoy thus spending several nights playing them before bedtime.

Playing is not as difficult as most people think it would be of, but it sure takes a lot of patient especially when your child is starting to learn to play a particular game, he needs time to understand and register the games rules too. Playing is important because it enables us to bond with our kids and a family that plays together (or do things together) becomes a strong & united family. Sadly most of the adults and kids do not know how to play, hence you read a lot of reports about the importance of playtime or seen government initiated family activities to enhance family bonding.

Well, we've got news for you! Playing can happen any place any time any where, and unless it's outdoor playtime, you don't need to spend hours on it. It can take as little as 10 to 20mins of your time but I guarantee you that it will be the best time of your day spending it playing with your child and family. Let us share with you some of the simple games that The DinoFamily will never get tired of playing, some of them do not even cost you a single cent~

*** *** ***

Silly Songs & Hand Games
A week plus ago I put up this FB status, we just attended a media invite, the kids had so much fun that they were still feeling super high even after the event has ended. Sitting at the back of the car with 3 super excited kids I did not need to do much as the kids sort of entertained themselves with silly songs; thus the Aunty Lucy and Yellow creatures mention, funny jokes & funny faces.

We love to sing silly songs, because it makes us think of funny words to sing or create funny sentences while singing. Most of the time you will come up with words that does not exactly rhythm or it may not be grammatically correct or makes any sense but who cares! It never fails to make us laugh our head off.

Then I decided that the all time favourite Scissors, Paper, Stone! should make its appearance, its fun with 2 players but when its 4 players, the fun level simply hit rocket high! We also introduced our kee-kee-giap game to the other 2 kids and the back seat just exploded with nonstop laughter & excited screams. The "catcher" opens his/her palm, the rest of the people will put their pointing finger on it. The "catcher" will then say out loud "kee-kee", he can drag these 2 words as long as he likes or say it real fast, then as he say out the word "giap!" he closes his palm in lighting speed and try to catch the fingers. The person who got caught gets to be the next "catcher". This games always get the kids screaming "Again! Again!" and they will fight to be the next "catcher" even though they were not caught.

We love the above 2 hand games and will play them at any given chance, at the bus stop waiting for the bus, queuing outside restaurants, waiting at the cinema, even while walking home. Oh and when you child enters Primary school you'll have to start to know how to play Heart Attack and Chopsticks games.

Keychain figurines Battles
Every morning we will take bus to school that is 2 bus stops away, we will usually take this short bus ride to chat a little bit, or have some mini battles such as this one; a fight between Spiderman and the evil slithering snake! On weekends while we are on the way to his classes, we sometimes will have Donatello & Tweety fighting scenes too. The scenes always have a different story line with different monsters ranging from double headed snakes, hydras, tiger, dinosaurs, walking fingers or even just a evil monster hand. This made travelling time pass by a little bit faster and takes the boy's mind to ask for my mobile phone "to check on the dragons Mummy."

Oh ya, have you roped in Zee Claw to be one of your allies? I like to deploy this invincible Zee Claw to "attack" DinoBoy and we will have kungfu sparrings. Zee Claw always win because it has a "not-so-secretive" special move. Yupe, you've guessed it, the tickling will make him surrenders without fails. I am not sure if every child is the same but DinoBoy loves to be tickled. One thing to take note when sending out Zee Claw is to ensure your fingernails are not too long and pointy, take care not to use FULL force to attack otherwise you will have to deal with a crying child.

Old School Toys
Do you remember the paper ball, an old school toy? Well, don't underestimate this simple toy, it can give you at least 20mins of fun while trying to see who can hit the most number of times before you missed it. This is serious play and takes a lot of concentration because while keeping your eyes glued to the ball, you have to keep count of the number of hits while maneuvering yourself to where the ball flies to, sometimes stretching out the arms and legs to try to hit the ball when it flew to an unexpected direction. Try bringing the game a notch higher by playing against each other, hit the ball to each other and see who emerges the winner. It's an exhausting game, from this mere 10mins of "simple hitting the ball" game, I promise you that besides getting a full body exercise you will get loads of laughter too.

Here are some of the old school toys where you can find them in the local party supplies shops

Outdoor Fun Time!
Our latest play time is hitting some shuttlecocks on Sunday mornings. We started it 2 Sundays ago with the 1st session of a good 45 mins of running and stretching. I was tired but at the same time it felt so good, my morning aches were gone and I felt so energized for the rest of the day. However, the next day my muscles were protesting! My arms, butt (yes you read right), thigh and back are aching! It wasn't strenuous workout till I can't feel my arms or legs the next day, just enough to make the heart pumping faster, sweaty forehead and waking up those lazy muscles.

This is one of the "perks" for playing badminton in a multi-purpose hall. More chance to exercise those muscles to try to get the shuttlecock down.

After our 1st badminton game DinoBoy asked eagerly "Mum, can we go down to play badminton this Sunday again?" "SURE!!!!" I replied.

And we did! Look at this little boy, tired but happy and already looking forward to next Sunday's game.

There you have it! These are the games that we are currently playing. Our next target is to get into some serious sidewalk drawing! First, we have to look for a sidewalk where its not under the hot scorching sun and not too many people walking around. If you are interested to join us, let us know!

PS : A big Thank You to Melvin who did some magic to the original Sesame Street video.